Life & Work with Niki Plows

Today we’d like to introduce you to Niki Plows.

Niki, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I baked mostly as a hobby for friends and family. I used to decorate cakes and loved doing that. I’ve had quite a few hobbies that have prepared me for baking bread. Most of them have to do with food!

We moved here from Illinois a little over 2 years ago. We came to Centerville to be a part of an amazing church community, and also to be a blessing to the town. My husband and I have gone back and forth wondering how we can fit into this community. Tossing around different ideas to fill a need for our town.

The idea of a bakery sort of just fell into our laps. The bakery started as a fundraiser for our family to raise money for a new car. Our main vehicle’s engine blew, and we were down to one 3-seater pickup truck for the 4 of us. I was racking my brain to think of ways we could raise money fast. For some reason, I had a 50lb bag of wheat berries in my kitchen, so I thought, ” I know how to bake bread, maybe I could do that?” the only problem was I didn’t have a grain mill! My sweet friend from church offered to lend me hers and then I was on my way!

I started small, just offering to my church community until I found the confidence to advertise publicly on Facebook. They were so kind to us and bought so much bread! I then got a sourdough starter from another friend that was started by our homeschool coop kids, and Clint Yastwood soon made his debut!

With the encouragement of my church family, we launched our little home bakery. The name Petal and Plows pays homage to my husband’s home country of England. Many pubs have similar-sounding names that don’t really make sense. I only realized it had our name in it after thinking about it for a while. It was originally going to be Petal and Plough. It really took off after a good friend from a local vendor mall advertised on your Facebook page. Petal and Plows bakery was born! With the help of our church family and local community, we were able to save for a vehicle in just 4 months.

The town of Centerville has really been welcoming and we have many repeat customers! Our long-term goal is to use local produce and honey for our ingredients. We want to help the community in any way we can.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It’s really been quite good, other than the learning period with my sourdough starter. It’s difficult being a small business because it’s just you. It’s a lot of long hours. When we are preparing for a vendor show or farmer’s market.

We usually don’t sleep for at least 24 hours. Because we are such a new micro-bakery, we don’t have the equipment that would make our baking days easier. I bake my sourdough in 2 cast iron dutch ovens. We have one oven that carries the weight of all our bread, and one small 4qt mixer that mixes our dough.

We’ve made a lot of memories as a family, and now that we have our new to us car, we can start saving for better equipment.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
This is a great question. I’ve spent most of my life making cakes. 25 years of cupcakes, tiered cakes, filled cakes, frosting, cookies, brownies, and so many sugary treats. While I enjoy them. I just couldn’t do it anymore! What I love about it thought was that it was my creative outlet. I loved shaping and molding the cakes, and now I can do that with bread. I enjoy making bread beautiful so it’s a feast for all of your senses.

What sets me apart from other bakeries that I’ve seen is that I’m focusing on just bread. There is something so comforting about good crusty bread. We have so many memories attached to the smell of it. It reminds us of our moms and grandmothers. Bread has been vilified in our culture and I want to bring it back in a positive light. A whole generation is being raised without it and being deprived of those special core memories.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Bread is life. It’s been in our lives since the beginning of time itself. It’s been a part of every meal. We can assume it’s what the manna from heaven that fed the Hebrew people in the wilderness might have been. There is a reason that Jesus is called the Bread of Life.

Bread is such an important part of who we are as a people. We can’t just forget about it or try to replace it with something else, there is no substitute for a simple loaf of homemade bread.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://petal-plows.square.site/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/petalandplows/